6 Surprising Uses for Mayo

Mayonnaise is a controversial ingredient in that people either love it or think it's the grossest substance on the planet. Yet, one aspect of mayo that isn't debatable is that it can be extremely helpful around the house. Just like with dish soap, Coca-Cola, and WD-40, there are several surprising uses for mayonnaise.

To find out more about surprising uses for mayo, we reached out to experts for their advice.

"If your wood furniture has any scratches or cracks, you can fix them by applying mayonnaise in and around the affected area to fill it up," Jolene Caufield — a senior advisor at Healthy Howard and a Master of Science in professional health studies and oriental medicine — tells Hunker. "Let it sit for a few days if you want to get the best results before wiping it off and buffing with a cloth."

Mayonnaise works to eliminate scratches because it leaves behind a film that takes on the color of the surrounding wood. If your wood also has water stains that don't penetrate past the finish, you can use mayonnaise to buff them out. Simply leave the mayo on the spot overnight and then wipe it off with a clean cloth.

Using dish soap, rubbing alcohol, and mayonnaise, you can get pesky water stains out of leather — bags, coats, couches, you name it! Step-by-step instructions and images can be found here.

We've all been there. You remove a label or sticker, but a bunch of glue stays behind. Instead of attempting to scratch the glue off, Albert Lee, the founder of home improvement site Home Living Lab, tells Hunker that you can use mayo.

"Simply apply a generous dab of mayo onto the sticky residue and allow it to sit for an hour," he advises. "The fats and oil in mayo acts as the perfect solvent for these sticky residues and you may simply wipe everything away with a clean cloth after an hour."

You can find additional methods for removing sticker residue here.

If your kid gets creative with their crayons and they end up marking a wall, Caufield says, "Scrubbing mayonnaise on walls and surfaces can get rid of crayon marks and crayon stains. Note that it may take some forceful scrubbing."

"Our favorite thing to do with mayo is to make hardwood floors shine," Afoma Umesi, an editor at the cleaning website Oh So Spotless, tells Hunker. "These floors get so much traffic, especially if you have pets or kids (or both). To handle scuff marks and dullness, we recommend using mayo after cleaning your floors."

All you have to do is apply a small bit of mayo to especially dull areas, allow it to sit overnight, and then wipe it off to reveal your shiny floors. This works because of the oil present in the mayo.

If you want your plant leaves to shine, apply mayo. Yes, really! Just like with floors, the oil in mayonnaise helps restore shininess to the leaves. Just make sure you don't use too much, so that it doesn't block your plant's pores or attract bugs.

For complete instructions on how to use mayo on plant leaves, click here.